by Connie Oswald Stofko What are the odds your impatiens will do well this year? Well, we had a drought last summer, so that’s good. The dry weather inhibited the spread of downy mildew, which is the blight that has been plaguing Impatiens walleriana, the plant that shade gardens had come to know and love for decades. Then again, our spring has been wet and cool, which are conditions that help the disease thrive, said Margery Daughtrey, senior extension associate…...
A container garden contest is just one of the activities that will be part of the Lewiston GardenFest to be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18 along Center Street in Lewiston. (Just keep driving along Center Street and you’ll see it.) The festival will include more than 50 vendors selling flowers, plants and garden essentials. There will also be speakers, demonstrations, a free garden walk and more throughout the weekend. The event…...
The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens is holding a Travel Raffle with three amazing prizes: The grand prize is a dream vacation of the winner’s choosing, the second prize is a relaxing weekend getaway to Ellicottville, and the third prize will make its winner a Botanical Gardens VIP for 2018. Travel Raffle tickets are $20 each and are available June 1 through Sept. 1. The grand prize winner will be able to choose their dream vacation. The prize includes…...
There used to be eight separate Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Restricted Zones in New York State, and now they’ve been expanded and merged into one big zone. In the Restricted Zone, you can’t move potentially infested ash wood, which includes firewood, logs, branches and nursery stock. The new EAB Restricted Zone includes part or all of Albany, Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chenango, Chemung, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Dutchess, Erie, Genesee, Greene, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans,…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Whether you’re looking for something new or you need something to fit a particular need, check out these suggestions from Thompson Brothers Greenhouses, 8850 Clarence Center Rd., Clarence Center. Dawn Trippie-Thompson said that after they close their garden center for the summer, she and her husband travel to trade shows and test gardens to see the new introductions for the following year. Here are a few plants that are new to Thompson Brothers this season: a…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko The deadlines to register to share your garden are coming up for several garden walks. Don’t be afraid of signing up to share your landscape. Yes, garden walks have lavish gardens, but they also have small gardens, evolving gardens, quirky gardens, vegetable gardens, low-maintenance gardens, organic gardens, gardens around kids’ swing sets, gardens on balconies — that’s what makes it fun! The gardens reflect many different lifestyles and personalities and spaces. Here are deadlines for some…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko If you are— or want to be— a garden communicator, consider attending GWA 2017, the 69th Annual Conference & Expo of GWA: The Association for Garden Communicators to be held Aug. 4-7 right here in Buffalo. You may already be garden communicator if you are a Master Gardener, give talks or tours, photograph gardens or write a blog. Maybe you’d like to break into the field and write a gardening book or improve your photography or…...
Colorful flowers and plants now greet patients, visitors and staff as they arrive at at Kenmore Mercy Hospital. A healing garden was blessed and dedicated on Friday, May 12. The garden was made possible by a donation to the Kenmore Mercy Foundation by the late John M. Repetski. Open to all hospital patients, visitors and community members, the 2,225-square-foot healing garden is located on the north end of the hospital next to its new Ambulatory Surgery Unit. The garden features…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Remember Morty, the huge, stinky corpse flower that made its appearance at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens in 2014? You can buy a smaller “cousin” of Morty to call your own at the Great Plant Sale. The voodoo lily, which smells like rotting meat, is one of the new offerings available this year at the Great Plant Sale to be held Thursday through Saturday, May 18-20 at the Botanical Gardens, 2655 South Park Ave.,…...
by Paul Hetzler, Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County If you have a nettle patch, put away the weed killer and consider yourself lucky to have this tasty plant. Many gardeners don’t like stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) because they are painful to touch. The plants sprout little hypodermic needles on their stems, leaves and even flowers. These glass-like silica-based needles, called trichomes, inject a mixture of irritating chemicals upon contact. So why would you risk putting it in your…...